Harold Holt - 1967

1967

In early 1967, Arthur Calwell retired as ALP leader and Gough Whitlam succeeded him. Whitlam proved a far more effective opponent, both in the media and in parliament, and Labor soon began to recover from its losses and gain ground, with Whitlam repeatedly besting Holt in Parliament. By this time the long-suppressed tensions between the Coalition partners over economic and trade policies were also beginning to emerge. Throughout his reign as Liberal leader, Menzies had enforced strict party discipline but, once he was gone, dissension began to surface. Some Liberals soon became dissatisfied by what they saw as Holt's weak leadership. Alan Reid asserts that Holt was being increasingly criticised within the party in the months before his death, that he was perceived as being "vague, imprecise and evasive" and "nice to the point that his essential decency was viewed as weakness".

Holt's popularity and political standing was damaged by his perceived poor handling of a series of controversies that emerged during 1967. In April, the ABC's new nightly current affairs program This Day Tonight ran a story which criticised the government's decision not to reappoint the Chair of the ABC Board, Sir James Darling. Holt responded rashly, questioning the impartiality of the ABC and implying political bias on the part of journalist Mike Willesee (whose father Don Willesee was an ALP Senator and future Whitlam government minister) and his statement drew strong protests from both Willesee and the Australian Journalists' Association.

In May, increasing pressure from the media and within the Liberal Party forced Holt to announce a parliamentary debate on the question of a second inquiry into the 1964 sinking of HMAS Voyager to be held on 16 May. The debate included the maiden speech by newly-elected NSW Liberal MP Edward St John QC, who used the opportunity to criticize the government's attitude to new evidence about the disaster. An enraged Holt interrupted St John's speech, in defiance of the parliamentary convention that maiden speeches are heard in silence; his blunder embarrassed the government and further undermined Holt's support in the Liberal Party. A few days later, Holt announced a new Royal Commission into the disaster.

In June Holt travelled to London via Canada, where on 6 June he opened the Australian Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal; on the return journey the Holts stayed with the Johnsons at the presidential summer resort, Camp David, in Maryland.

In October the government became embroiled in another embarrassing controversy over the alleged misuse of VIP aircraft, which came to a head when John Gorton (Government Leader in the Senate) tabled documents which showed that Holt had unintentionally misled Parliament in his earlier answers on the matter. Support for his leadership was eroded even further by his refusal to sack the Minister for Air Peter Howson in order to defuse the scandal, fuelling criticism from within the party that Holt was "weak" and lacked Menzies' ruthlessness.

In November 1967 the government suffered a serious setback in the Senate elections, winning just 42.8 per cent of the vote against Labor's 45 per cent. The coalition also lost the seats of Corio and Dawson to Labor in by-elections. Alan Reid says that within the party the reversal was blamed on Holt's mishandling of the VIP planes scandal. In December, days before Holt disappeared, the Chief Government Whip Dudley Erwin decided to meet with Holt and confront him about growing unrest in the party. According to Alan Reid's account, Erwin had no concerns about policy—his anxiety was entirely focussed on Holt's leadership style, his parliamentary performance and his public image.

The notes Erwin made for his planned meeting with Holt (which he evidently provided to Reid) indicate that he and others were worried that Holt was too susceptible to traps set for him by the ALP over issues like the VIP jets scandal, and that he had repeatedly let himself become the target of Opposition "harassment" instead of letting his ministers take the heat on controversial issues.